Scheduled to open in spring 2014, NMS@Culver City's 131 residential units over restaurants and shops will further Culver City's image as a serious destination to live, work and play.A revitalized downtown area, the new Expo Line and markets like Venice and Santa Monica busting at the seams have ushered in a new era of young, hot technology and creative companies to the area. NMS@Culver City will further the efforts of the area to not only continue bringing these types of people and companies to Culver City, but giving them good reason to stay as well.

Construction has kicked off on a $63-million apartment and shopping complex near a light-rail station on the edge of downtown Culver City as developers move to capitalize on the new Expo Line.

The six-story project is being built by Santa Monica apartment landlord NMS Properties. The development at 9901 Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles, across the street from Culver City, will be known as NMS@Culver City. It will house 131 units over restaurants and shops.

The complex is across from the Kirk Douglas Theatre and Sony Pictures Plaza office building.

"We find the redevelopment program and streetscape emerging along Washington Boulevard in Culver City extremely attractive and believe our project will further enhance the streetscape renaissance occurring there," said Jim Andersen, president of NMS Properties.

The apartments are scheduled to open in spring 2014. The site was formerly occupied by Culver Plaza, a movie theater and retail center with three levels of below-grade parking. The underground garage will be

seismically upgraded and reused with the new complex, architect Wade Killefer said.

Upper floors of Culver Plaza were surrounded by a colorful 7,000-square-foot mural called "Syncopation" by artist Ed Massey that came to be a neighborhood landmark after it was installed in 2004. The mural was removed before demolition and moved to Westside Neighborhood School, an independent elementary school in the Playa Vista area of Los Angeles.

Massey supervised sectioning and reconfiguring of the mural into pieces that have been attached to the exteriors of the school's two buildings, a school representative said. The 15 panels are covered with opaque plastic sheeting in anticipation of an unveiling ceremony Thursday.

Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate development linked to Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Expo Line are in the pipeline in Culver City. NMS and other developers are also targeting future station sites in Santa Monica and other stops along the light-rail line for construction of new mixed-use residential projects.